![\"Brain](\"http:\/\/cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2017\/01\/14\/791c70d3-2113-46a1-ba7a-e07a96c64773\/thumbnail\/380x240\/235c2d03cbe4f26f4426b02f87fcd078\/0114-cbsn-ybm-7marathons-1230809-640x360.jpg#\")
<\/span>Brain cancer survivor running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days<\/h3>\n
\n Some people spend months training for one marathon, but one woman is planning to run seven in the span of one week. BethAnn Telford, 2017 World M…\n <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There was a similar difference when researchers compared those patients with older adults admitted the same day to hospitals outside the marathon-affected areas.<\/p>\n
The study drew praise but also notes of caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great study,\u201d said Dr. Howard Mell, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians.<\/p>\n
When a city hosts a major sports event, he said, organizers prepare for the participants\u2019 needs, an influx of tourists, and disruptions in traffic and \u201cinfrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has always been an appreciation that medical care might be delayed, Mell said. But this study actually ties marathon days to people\u2019s survival odds, he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tells us, holy cow, the effects might be bigger than we\u2019ve thought,\u201d Mell added.<\/p>\n
However, the study does not prove that ambulance delays<\/a> — or any other single marathon issue — caused the higher mortality, said Dr. Michael Scott Emery.<\/p>\n
Emery, who was not involved in the study, is a member of the Sports and Exercise Cardiology Section of the American College of Cardiology.<\/p>\n \n Never give up: One man who knows the truth of that is Meb Keflezighi, a veteran athlete who, at 41, is the oldest American Olympic marathoner in …\n <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis study is interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t tell us the \u2018why.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n No one is trying to pick on marathons<\/a>. It\u2019s possible that heart patients\u2019 outcomes could be affected during any large, disruptive event, said Dr. Anupam Jena, the lead researcher on the study.<\/p>\n Jena said his team concentrated on marathons because the 26-mile races require such extensive road closures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not saying that cities shouldn\u2019t have these events,\u201d said Jena, an associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.<\/p>\n But, he noted, marathon organizers should be aware of the potential consequences for residents, and look at whether their planning is optimal.<\/p>\n The findings are based on data from Medicare patients in 11 U.S. cities that hosted major marathons between 2002 and 2012.<\/p>\n Of patients taken to the hospital for a heart attack or cardiac arrest on a marathon day, 28 percent died within a month. That compared with about 25 percent of patients admitted in the weeks before or after a marathon.<\/p>\n The investigators found no evidence that the increase was related to heart problems among marathon participants or out-of-town visitors.<\/p>\n There were, however, some ambulance delays. On average, ambulances took an extra 4 minutes to get patients to the hospital on marathon days, according to the report.<\/p>\n Every minute counts when it comes to heart attack and cardiac arrest, Jena said.<\/p>\n Still, he acknowledged, \u201cyou could question whether 4 minutes would translate into such a difference in survival.\u201d<\/p>\n Emery did just that. \u201cI find it hard to pin the blame on those 4 extra minutes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n So Jena pointed to another finding: About one-quarter of patients got themselves to the hospital.<\/p>\n Their travel times were unknown. \u201cBut,\u201d Jena said, \u201cyou can bet their delays were a lot longer than 4 minutes. My hunch is, that might explain much of the mortality increase.\u201d<\/p>\n The findings, said Jena, underscore the importance of dialing 911 when you think you\u2019re having heart attack symptoms.<\/p>\n \u201cNever drive yourself to the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that may be especially critical on a day when there\u2019s a big event like a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n Mell and Emery stressed the same thing: Call 911, so paramedics can not only get you to the hospital, but also start treating you immediately.<\/p>\n Another possibility, Emery noted, is that on-call hospital staff had trouble getting through traffic on marathon days. But that\u2019s just speculation, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s more to this story,\u201d Emery said. \u201cAnd it requires further investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n The study results were published in the April 13 issue of the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a marathon shuts down city streets, it\u2019s more than an inconvenience: Nearby residents appear more likely to die from heart attack and cardiac arrest, a new study finds. The study, of 11 U.S. cities, found that older residents were less likely to survive the heart events on marathon days, compared to other days, perhaps Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Meb](\"http:\/\/cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2016\/08\/21\/8762c4cc-7c4c-4cd7-90e6-bb5bbb36b51f\/thumbnail\/380x240\/7e10d89c8c1e8a11f41414e16dff72fb\/0821-sunmo-marathonrunner-1110021-640x360.jpg#\")
<\/span>Meb Keflezighi, marathon runner<\/h3>\n